further. His first question was always “ How long do-
you intend to remain here? have you not got all the
plants and stones you want ? you can see the sun
much better with those brasses and glasses (alluding to
the sextant, &c.) lower down; it is very cold here, and
there is no food; ”—to all which I had hut one reply,
that I should not return till I had visited Kongra
Lama. He was, I think, at heart good-natured; I had
no difficulty in drawing him on to talk about Tibet,
and the holy city of Teshoo Loombo, with its gilt
temples, and convents, its holiest of all the holy grand
Lamas of Tibet, and all the wide Boodhist world
besides. Had it even been politic, I felt that it would
he unfair to he angry with a man who was evidently in a
false position between myself and his two rulers, the
Rajah and Dewan; who had a wife and family on the
smiling flanks of Singtam, and who longed to he
soaking in the warm rain of Sikkim, drinking Murwa
beer (a luxury unknown among these Tibetans) and
gathering in his crops of rice, millet, and buckwheat.
Though I may owe him a grudge for his subsequent
violence, I still recal with pleasure the hours we spent
together on the banks of the Lachen. In all matters
respecting the frontier, his lies were circumstantial;
and he further took the trouble of bringing country
people to swear that this was Cheen, and that there
was no such place as Kongra Lama. I had written to
ask Dr. Campbell for a definite letter from Tchebu
Lama on this point, but unfortunately my despatches
were lost; the messenger who conveyed them missed
his footing in crossing the Lachen, and narrowly
escaped with life, while the turban in which the letters
were placed was carried down the current.
Finally the Soubah tried to persuade my people that
one so incorrigibly obstinate must be mad, and that
they had better leave me. One day, after we had had a
long discussion about the geography of the frontier, he
inflamed my curiosity by telling me that Kmchinjhow
was a very holy mountain; more so than its sister-
peaks of Chumulari and Kinchinjunga; and that both
the Sikkim and Tibetan Lamas, and Chinese soldiers,
were ready to oppose my approach to it. This led to
my asking him for a sketch of the mountains; he
called for a sheet of paper, and some charcoal, and
wanted to form his mountains of sand ; I however
ordered rice to be brought, and though we had but
little, scattered it about wastefully. This had its
effect; he stared at my wealth, for he had calculated
on starving me out, and retired, looking perplexed and
crestfallen. Nothing puzzled him so much as my
being always occupied with such, to him, unintelligible
pursuits ; a Tibetan “ cui bono ? ” was always in his
mouth: “ What good will it do you ? ” “ Why should
you spend weeks on the coldest, hungriest, windiest,
loftiest place on the earth, without even inhabitants ? ”
Drugs and idle curiosity he believed were my motives,
and possibly a reverence for the religion of Boodh,
Sakya, and Tsongkaba. Latterly he had made up his
mind to starve me out, and was dismayed when he
found I could hold out better than himself, and when
I assured him that I should not retrace my steps
until his statements should be verified by a letter